June 1, 2025: Spiny Water Flea

Hello June!  We're now enjoying the longest daylight hours of the year, and this week we had some beautiful days to soak in all that sunshine.

On one paddle around the lake I noticed how the water lilies had adapted to the high water levels.  

Yellow Pond Lilies with long stems.

They had to grow long stems to keep their leaves above water and gather the sunlight that gives them life, and now with the water dropping they're dangling on long tethers that funnel the food they create down to their roots.  A few days later they had blossomed.

With the water level just about back to normal we can expect the loons to be seeking nesting sites; the territorial battles seem to have settled down, though not stopped.  On Friday I had a pretty good hint that they are in search of nesting sites when a loon popped up right next to my kayak, between me and the shore.

A close encounter with a loon in protective mode.

It then dove and swam right underneath me, surfacing on the other side, luring me away from shore.  

I'll bet its mate was at the shoreline evaluating a potential nest site; I didn't go looking, but rather continued quickly on my way.  It may be a little later than the ideal nesting period but there's still plenty of time to nest and raise chicks.  The biggest concern would be a heat wave in June or early July when they are sitting on their eggs.  

I love the different shades of green in the forest as the leaves on the deciduous trees fully develop the chlorophyll that the gives them their deep green color.  

It makes it easy to differentiate between evergreen and deciduous trees.

The view from above at Crockett's Ledge.

Soon their leaves will match the hue of evergreens that keep their through the winter.

I received a report from people fishing in Winnipesaukee and Squam that the Spiny Water Flea, a small, invasive crustacean, has grown to high population levels in both lakes.  

Spiny Water Flea shown on a pencil eraser.  Photo from NH Fish and Game.

This animal poses no health concerns to humans, but it is a problem for native animals as it alters the food web, and its sharp body parts can damage the internal organs of fish.  By feeding on native zooplankton, it can reduce the amount of plankton that consumes algae, leading to larger algal blooms.  The flea also causes problems with fishing lines.

Clogging up a fishing line.  Photo by Jeff Gunderson.

The spiny water flea is native to Asia and Europe and was brought to America by cargo ships, first found in the Great Lakes in the 1980s and making their way to Vermont by 2013.  It was found in both Winnipesaukee and Winnisquam in 2023.  Although NH laws requiring draining and drying boats between different water bodies will help slow its spread, it will undoubtedly find its way to all the lakes over time.  

One advantage Lake Wicwas has is its smaller size and high nutritive value.  According to NH DES the flea "seems to prefer the open water areas of large, low-nutrient lakes".  [Ref:  NH DES Environmental Fact Sheet NN-68]  Of course, the high nutrient content of Wicwas supports other problems such as increased vegetation growth of both native and invasive aquatic plants.  It also provides a good foundation for cyanobacteria blooms.

In other water quality news, we've already had a minor outbreak of cyanobacteria in Wicwas; I found it in many locations around the lake this week. 

Cyanobacteria along the west shore of Lake Wicwas.

NH DES tested a water sample and found a concentration of 25,900 cells/liter which is below the threshold level of 70,000, but it's still wise to be vigilant when you swim and to not let pets drink the water.  Keep an eye out for bright green flecks suspended in the water column, sometimes described as looking like a snow globe. 

Cyanobacteria suspended in the water.  Pollen doesn't typically do that.

As a cyanobacteria bloom expands it may rise to surface as a green scum, and then sink to the bottom of the lake.

New wildflowers sprouted this week.  Watch for the common four-petaled white Bunchberry and Pointed Blue-eyed Grass.  

Pointed Blue-eyed Grass.

I'll end with the end - the end of a beautiful day on Lake Wicwas.

June 12, 2022: Lupine Time

We did get up to Sugar Hill this week and the lupines are putting on a fine show this year.

Lupine (Lupinus perennis)

So fine in fact that a painting class was taking place in the upper field where Cannon Mountain and the Lafayette Range set the background for the artists.

I think the lower field was the most spectacular I've ever seen it, awash in deep blue and purple with the occasional burst of pink or white sprinkled here and there.

It's always worth the drive up through Franconia Notch in Lupine season, but I also found mountain color closer to home.  On a hike to Mt. Shaw in the Ossipee Range I found several flowers in bloom including lady's slippers around 2000' elevation.  But the most interesting find was a plant that grows in dry, acidic soils as found in rocky granite outcroppings at high elevations.

Cinquefoil

I think this is three-toothed cinqufoil growing in the cracks and crevises in the granite which helps to break down the rock over time.

Granite ledges in the Ossipee Range with Lake Winnipesaukee and the Belknap Mountains in the background.

  Other flowers seen along the trail included bunchberry and bluebead lily.

Bluebead lily (Clintonia borealis)

Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)

Later this summer bunchberry will have many small red berries while bluebead lily will have large - you guessed it - blue berries.

I also came across a towering birch tree right beside the High Range Trail which New Hampshire forester Dan Stepanauskas identified for me as yellow birch and estimated it at over 250 years old. 

An ancient yellow birch in the Ossipee Mountains

The mountains aren't claiming all the beauty though, as there is plenty to be found down at lake level.

Larger blue flag (Iris versicolor)

These wild irises grow in marshes and wet shorelines all around lake.  

One more lake flower I'll share is this wild cranberry viburnum I found growing on Sheep Island:

Cranberry Viburnum (Viburnum trilobum) also called highbush cranberry

I'll end with an update on the loon picture which remains fluid.  As far as I can tell the banded pair is still tending to a nest though I often see both loons together far away from the nest.  Band sightings indicate it is the nesting pair.  But I also believe a second pair of loons is working on a nest in another part of the lake.  I've seen two loons near the island where a pair successfully raised a chick ("Justin Time") in 2018.  One loon observer has seen them bringing nesting materials from the bottom of the lake to the island, and one day when I was near the island a loon popped up right next to my kayak, acting as a decoy to draw me away from the island, which I immediately did, but still managed to get perhaps the closest look at a loon I've ever had.

There have been reports of a possible fifth loon on the lake.  It could be an interesting summer.

June 21, 2020: Summer Flowers are Here

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there! 

The summer heat arrived just in time for Father's Day, and the summer flowers are loving it; they're expressing themselves with brilliant colors from all corners of the spectrum.  I will let them speak for themselves.

Orange Hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum)

And the yellow variety (Hieracium caespitosum)

Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) on Linda's Lobelia (not wild)

Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)

Daises and Lupines

Oxeye Daisey (Leucanthemum vulgare)

Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)

 

Not wild, but pretty

Sheep Laurel (Kalmia angustifolia)

Lupine (Lupinus)

With a customer

Mapleleaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium)

I'll mention one concern about the heat:  the loons.  The Bryant Island nest is completely exposed to the sun all day long, and with clear, hot days one after another the loons have had no relief for days on end.  On top of that, with yesterday being the solstice, there's 15 and half hours of sun beating on them each day. The Harris Cove nest has a much better site with a good covering of bushes, but even they must be suffering.   It will be a remarkable parenting effort if either pair can keep their eggs cool enough to be viable.  We'll know in a couple more weeks.  

Until then, dads, granddads, and everyone, know that we are thinking of you even if we can't be with you, and take the time to smell the flowers.

July 30, 2017 - Berries: Red, Black, and Blue

One of the great things about New Englanders is that no matter what the weather - hot and humid, breezy and brisk, cold and rainy - people find a way to enjoy whatever mother nature doles out.

Sailing in the sunshine,

or fishing in the drizzle, people enjoy New Hampshire lakes

It's berry season in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire.  Blueberries are everyone's favorite and they have been prolific this year, resulting in some great sweet treats.

It's not too late to find some;  two of my favorite spots are along the shores of Lake Wicwas and up on the ridges of the Belknap Mountain Range. Belknap, Whiteface, Piper, even Lockes Hill all have blueberries that aren't hard to find.  Of course you can buy wild blueberries at some of the farm stands, but they always seem to taste better if they have grown in the cool waters of a lake or the crisp air high on a mountain top.

Summit of Piper Mountain in the Belknap Range

Following behind the blueberries by a couple of weeks, and also good to eat though they have seeds in them, are the huckleberries.  The Black Cherry I've been watching are just about ripe, and although edible, I've never found them palatable - they are bitter and have large pits - which is too bad because they are plentiful this year.

Not quite "black" cherries yet

This year's rain and hot weather has been good for the berry crop

Inedible but very pretty are the bright red fruit of the bunchberry.

These had white flowers back in early June around the lake.

Blossom on June 6th

I was hiking up at 4800' in the White Mountains last week and found that bunchberry are just now blooming at that elevation, six or seven weeks behind the lower elevations, indicating that the season lags by almost two weeks for every thousand feet of elevation gained.

Bunchberry blooming on July 21 at the 4833 foot summit of Carter Dome

And here are some black berries I found in a deeply shaded part of the forest; I don't know what they are.

An unidentified black berry

They remind me of something we called "deadly nightshade" when I was a kid, but looking that up, deadly nightshade, or belladonna, is clearly something different.  Does anyone have any help for me on this one?

Lastly, an update on the loon nest:  at three and a half weeks after nesting, everything appears to be going smoothly.  At last check, mom was on the nest - her bands were visible when she stood up to turn over the egg, so we know it was the female.

The male was out and about doing some fishing.

We also saw an osprey fly right over them, doing some fishing of its own.

Osprey eat almost exclusively fish, so our loons should be safe from the osprey.  But not from eagles - a bald eagle will certainly go after a loon chick. The chick should hatch within the next week, so lets hope for the best.

An osprey in search mode